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Strumigenys Sp. Experience/ Observations

Well I stumbled upon these guys (Strumigenys Sp.) accidentally on google images, and have now fallen in love with them. As result I was wondering if anyone here has had experience with catching queens and raising a colony, capturing a colony, or even stumbling across a colony in the wild. Any experience from the state of Maryland would help the most, but any experience at all is greatly appreciated.

Generally: they have small colonies and are pretty hard to raise from a single queen. Your best chance is to look in rotting wood. They eat all kinds of soft-bodied arthropods

I did a little research myself and on antwiki, it seems they ( maybe a specific species that I don't remember) would only eat springtails while they were kept in a lab colony. They also would wander into Aphaenogaster Sp. nest mostly unnoticed and would nearly never be attacked in that same experiment. In fact I read that in the wild they would find them near, or almost in Aphaenogaster nests/ under the same rocks, most likely eating the abundant springtails near the nest.

I caught two colonies already. One was at the base of a tree trunk, the other was under a rock. At both occasions there had been heavy rains, from what I have read, it forces them to move to higher locations, exposing themselves. On the first caught colony, I caught a male but no queen. The above photos are from the second colony. I tried my best to keep them but I didn't had a proper springtail colony. They survived for 2 or 3 weeks. My advise is get your springtail colony going even before attempting to house this species.

I caught two colonies already. One was at the base of a tree trunk, the other was under a rock. At both occasions there had been heavy rains, from what I have read, it forces them to move to higher locations, exposing themselves.

Hey RappaNui, I was wondering how you went about collecting the colonies, did you use an aspirator or did you shovel them up into a small container. Also how did you go about keeping the colony?

I've caught 2 Strumigenys queens before, each different species. I don't know if either of them were fertile but they did not accept any food I offered them and never laid eggs. I'm pretty sure I should've fed them live springtails which I didn't have.

I've caught 2 Strumigenys queens before, each different species. I don't know if either of them were fertile but they did not accept any food I offered them and never laid eggs. I'm pretty sure I should've fed them live springtails which I didn't have.

I caught two colonies already. One was at the base of a tree trunk, the other was under a rock. At both occasions there had been heavy rains, from what I have read, it forces them to move to higher locations, exposing themselves.

Hey RappaNui, I was wondering how you went about collecting the colonies, did you use an aspirator or did you shovel them up into a small container. Also how did you go about keeping the colony?

I used an aspirator on both occasions. I was not very successful keeping them. I went to some dead wood area and collected some soil with small arthropods and mixed them together. But I couldn't get any springtails colony going on time.

I spent an hour at 97 degrees F weather looking for workers and caught 8 workers. They play dead and the best place for me(as a fellow Maryland resident) would be too sift through leaf litter in forests. I find workers crawling on the ground and they are slow, so do not mistaken them for Nylanderia or mites! Also, does anybody know if they are ponerine ants?

Ah, well. It'll still be pretty interesting to see how my 8-worker colony goes. I haven't acquired any springtails yet, but I plan to do so. Note- ants like these seem to do better in more natural setups(i.e.- small, plastic/glass boxes with some dirt, wet wood mulch, or leaf litter with some termites or springtails sprinkled in). I plan on moving my ants into a small plastic case that used to hold earrings with a floor layer of plaster and some wet wood mulch sprinkled on top.

I spent an hour at 97 degrees F weather looking for workers and caught 8 workers. They play dead and the best place for me(as a fellow Maryland resident) would be too sift through leaf litter in forests. I find workers crawling on the ground and they are slow, so do not mistaken them for Nylanderia or mites! Also, does anybody know if they are ponerine ants?

That's lucky for me since I live right next to a state park with a large lack in the middle. I'll also keep the fact that they are slow( and very small) in mind when I finally get around to going out and looking for them.

Ah, well. It'll still be pretty interesting to see how my 8-worker colony goes. I haven't acquired any springtails yet, but I plan to do so. Note- ants like these seem to do better in more natural setups(i.e.- small, plastic/glass boxes with some dirt, wet wood mulch, or leaf litter with some termites or springtails sprinkled in). I plan on moving my ants into a small plastic case that used to hold earrings with a floor layer of plaster and some wet wood mulch sprinkled on top.

Yeah, I was wondering about their setup, I was hoping when I go out I could catch multiple colonies and try different setups for each and see what works out. Although it may be a while before I even go out and catch them as I'm trying to get my springtail culture going by catching wild spring tails( which seems to be going very slowly so far). However, best of luck with your little colony, and please keep me/ us(Nathant2131, as he seems to be just as interested as me) updated on progress or any observations. Thank you!

I moved the colony in and they appear to be foraging. These are by far the smallest ants I have ever seen, and they seem to be enjoying tgis setup. I have yet to feed them, and I'll try to post a video of that. I also hypothesuze that they prefer a high humidity level, but I also have yet to test this out.